Allegory and Political Economy

19 March 2012, 6.30pm

IEA, 2 Lord North Street, London, SW1 (door on Great Peter Street)

Liberal Economics Rediscovers Adam Smith

Adam Smith famously wrote of an invisible hand, and Friedrich Hayek wrote of the price system as communication. Others write of the free enterprise system as cooperation. Daniel Klein will affirm such talk, but insist that it all invokes allegory. He will discuss the allegorical nature of such talk and urge liberal economists to declare allegory. The talk is based on his new book Knowledge and Coordination: A Liberal Interpretation (Oxford UP, 2012). Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

Daniel Klein is professor of economics at George Mason University, editor of Econ Journal Watch, and author of Knowledge and Coordination: A Liberal Interpretation (Oxford UP, 2012).

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